Begun online in 2004 and published by Abrams in 2006, "Mom's Cancer" won the 2005 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize, the 2007 Harvey Award for Best New Talent, and the 2007 German Youth Literature Prize for non-fiction. It was nominated for a 2006 Quill Book Award, a 2006 Cybil Literary Award, the American Library Association's "2007 Best Books for Young Adults" Award, and two 2007 Eisner Awards. I am as surprised as anyone.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Mammoir

Once in a while I'm contacted by a writer, artist, or cartoonist who's heard about Mom's Cancer and invites me to take a look at their work. I don't feel particularly well qualified as a critic, my opinion is of little more value than anyone else's, I don't know any secrets to getting published, and I'm not in a position to help anyone's career but my own (and I'm none too certain there). As long as everyone understands those ground rules and I have the time, I'm usually happy to oblige.

Mammoir is a book written and illustrated by Tucky Fussell, who was a fourth grade teacher in Boston when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tucky is currently teaching overseas and her mother, Betty, sent me a copy. It's a remarkable piece of work.

Tucky brought her professional experience as a former advertising writer and commercial artist to Mammoir, which is structured as a series of "teaching units" covering her diagnosis, treatment, reconstructive surgery, and subsequent life. Tucky's black-and-white line art is loose and "undergroundish," sometimes displaying a simplicity and crudeness that looks a lot like spontaneity and urgency to me. I think it's appropriate for this story. Her narrative is imaginative, almost stream-of-consciousness: she interjects pop culture references and Hindu deities into discussions with her breasts (which talk back) and a wise-cracking laboratory rat who follows her around like her own Jiminy Cricket. It's an abstract, very metaphorical trip through Tucky's life and imagination.

While I might disagree with particular narrative or artistic choices, Mammoir accomplishes a lot of things I like. First, it clearly comes from the same impulse that led me to create Mom's Cancer: capture the details of this strange experience, turn something bad into something good, and help other people through similar ordeals. Second, I feel like I get to know the character of "Tucky," like her, and care about what happens to her; that's hard to accomplish in any medium. Third, to the extent that I can tell, it's accurate and honest about cancer; a lot of it was eerily familiar to me because my family lived it, too. Fourth, I simply have a ton of respect for the work and commitment that went into its 176 pages, knowing that she had to start on Panel One of Page One just like I did.

More information about Mammoir--including Tucky's bio, sample pages, and order information--is available at www.mammoir.com. The book is produced by AuthorHouse, a company I don't know but which appears to be a print-on-demand publisher like Lulu or CafePress. The copy I received is well printed and bound, and looks completely professional in every way. Why this do-it-yourself technology hasn't completely revolutionized the publishing industry is beyond me.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Dear Brian,

I am overwhlemed and very touched that you highlighted my book on your blog news, which my mom forwarded to me. I am absolutely thrilled to get such good publicity. Thank you for taking the time to offer genuine support.

And with what you have written about your own book, I can't wait to read it. I guess that will have to wait til I get back to the States. Congrats on the hard copy version. I would love to offer a link to your site on my website. What do you think?

I have some questions I'd love to ask you. I know you are really busy, so don't feel obliged to answer them,but I respect your opinion and would love your feedback if you have any time at all.

Here are my questions:1.) How did you draw up Mom's Cancer? Were they simple line drawings that you then scanned in and shaded in Photoshop?

2.) I am thinking of writing and drawing a line of comic books about Kuwait, and or teaching overseas, for a US audience. I'd love to submit some to magazines. Any suggestion on the size (4 pages as opposed to 24)

3.) I am feeling very isolated over here, and am considering relocating to the States to promote my book, which is pretty hard to do over here, partly because cancer is a nono to talk about, partly because no bookstores would be interested in it. What do you think?

4.) How do you pay the bills and write/draw at the same time?

5.) Could I promote my book at the Comics Conventionin San Diego and how would I do it?

Well thanks a lot, and if you don't have time to respond, it's no priblem. At least your blog gave me a chance to get clearer about some things.

I'm glad you saw my post. I've got to say, your Mom is quite a cheerleader. I'd be happy to have you link to my site, but don't feel obligated.

I'll try to answer your questions here but also encourage you to e-mail me privately (brian@momscancer.com) so we can whisper to each other backstage.

1. I drew Mom's Cancer very traditionally, penciling and inking on Bristol board. I then scanned the black-and-white art into Photoshop for clean-up, shading, coloring, etc. I go into some detail about my method in my entry of November 9 (http://momscancer.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-i-cartoon.html).

2. I like your idea but have no advice about the U.S. magazine market. The best I could suggest is that you create a proposal with a few sample pages that you then submit to the magazines you have in mind. Each will surely have its own ideas about size, format (proportions, color vs. b/w, etc.) that would be good to know before you get too committed to the job.

3. I think promoting your book would be very hard over *here*, too. I'm fortunate to have a publisher who knows what they're doing; I have no advice for a self-published author. I have heard of guerilla marketing campaigns in which a writer loads up books in the back of her car and hits the road for a few months. That could work. I think you could benefit from the robust network of breast cancer support groups in the U.S.--seems to me that if people in those groups read and like "Mammoir" that it could get a lot of word-of-mouth help.

4. In my day job I'm a self-employed science writer who works at home. Doing "Mom's Cancer" was hard and took a long time, but I was lucky in that I could schedule writing and drawing time in among my other work. If I needed to take a morning to draw, I could (I might end up working on something else until midnight, but that was the trade-off).

5. I think the San Diego Comic-Con and similar events could really work for you. They typically set aside space for small-press or self-published cartoonists to display and sell their work (though I have no idea how much actual business they do). For example, Comic-Con has a small-press area where you can buy a table for, I think, $300. See http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_smallpress.shtml.